I am somewhat frustrated.  I suppose you may have felt frustrated reading that article I sent, or at least part of it.  When I read it, of course, I wasn’t looking for flaws.  You appear to focus on flaws when reading something you know you disagree with.  I suppose nearly everyone including me does the same thing to some degree.  For example, suppose the author had said God told them not to eat the “apple” (which you me and the author all know is not specified as such) to avoid looking too closely at the idea that God set Adam and Eve up, call it - He designed them in such a way that he knew they would fail given the situation?  And, then, in this my fiction, of what you may have been thinking, you say aloud, “This idiot thinks it was an apple.  And, my stars, he says only 10% of prophecy has been fulfilled, what barrel is he hiding under?  Case closed.” 

Let me describe a recent situation in which I too started down that same kind of road, perhaps, in part to avoid any truth among flaws, or at least one suggestion which I found to be a serious flaw.  Someone suggested to me that perhaps God knew that in one of my prays, I was at fault in what I asked for and that God knew that granting my request would be harmful to me.  Part of my prayer had included a request for stronger faith and more sincerity.  And I had communicated, perhaps in other words, I wanted to receive whatever it takes to be able to serve and love God and others.  At first, I was rather angry, thinking something like, “Wow, that makes even less sense than God repenting or God agreeing with, and then sending lies, even if by proxy, as it were, to serve His Purpose.  Although this guy would claim to be a Bible scholar, it is very clear now that he knows a lot less about what the Bible says than he seems to indicate.  It sure looks like he wouldn’t know Biblical truth if it bit him in the ear.  But then, I thought, I shoud be kind.  He wants to help me understand, but he has much to do in his church too, I’ll bet he did a cut and paste, after quickly skimming what I had written.  Sure, that may seem like he cares little about his responses, and has not been quite as thorough considering what I say as he asks me to be regarding information he sends me, but I have certainly done the same kind of thing when consulting about ADHD.   And cut and paste most often works well for many questions.  And, at least, for the very most part, the Church of Christ has never, to the best of my knowledge, even suggested that God finds faith in him harmful in any way.  Don’t expect the good preacher to be perfect, or to always present perfect arguments.  He has been one of the few who fully appears to want to help me despite my clearly flawed and imperfect style. 

I know that much of the following you will find, from your view (the Bible you would make clear, not your view) to be absurdly wrong, nonetheless, I ask that for the moment, try to shut of the part of you (which I have too) which looks for any reason to not think about it, flaws, the fact that it seems to fly in the face of all that you know, and consider this.  The author is the only source I know of who was able to explain to me why God acted as He did in much of the Old Testament.  In short, God needed to be, well, brutal or at least very firm in a world which was also more brutal and harsh than it is now.  Even actions which my finite mind tells me are “over the top” etc. were required to demonstrate clearly it the Israelites that their God was fully able to be trusted to protect them when they followed him. Also, once I asked God directly, “What am I missing?  The world makes no sense.  I am taught things about you which make no sense.  Why do you even allow Evil?  I read where You created it.  Give me a break.  I just feel it is all so crazy!”  I got this answer, which I am still trying to process.  Although the answer that it all came from Satan, for me, simply makes less than no sense as it adds one more level to the craziness.   And God told me, do you think that things are not going just as I planned them.  Everything is just as I want it to be.  How could it not be?  I designed it after all.  Yes, from where you sit, I know that it seems crazy.  Nothing seems to fit.  But My plan will work out perfectly in the end.  It’s all good.  Many believe that it is not all good.  And, as absurd as that sounds, even that is part of My perfect plan.  Don’t worry it will all work out good.  And no one will fry in Hell.   You will not understand all of this now; just know that I allow nothing that is not part of my perfect plan.  Waste no time in trying to convince anyone of all of this.  They won’t buy it.  To them it is folly.  Just remember, its all good.

Of course it is clear that I still struggle to put all of that together.  And I expect that you may well want to show me how such simply is false.